090, Stacy Flynn, Evrnu | Sustainable Fashion Innovation

If you think about sustainable fashion, conscious consumption or the circular economy, you’ll want to meet Stacy Flynn of Evrnu. Evrnu collects cotton garment waste and turns it into new fiber for premium garments.

Stacy knows the textile and apparel industry. As an industry insider with such companies as DuPont, Target and Eddie Bauer, she was responsible for millions if not billions of yards of fabric being produced. However, on a 2010 trip to China, Stacy had a chance to see first-hand the kind of environmental degradation that textile production was creating. She told me “I was shocked awake.” Stacy made a decision to create innovations for sustainable fashion. She felt that she either had to take responsibility for none of the environmental impact, or all of it. This heartfelt decision eventually led to the founding of Evrnu.

In this compelling interview, Stacy tells the story of how Evrnu went from “three beakers and a dream,” to “what looked like dental floss” to a prototype of Levi 511 jeans. She talks about the struggles of inventing a new industry, while dealing with massive corporations and trying to fund new inventions. Stacy tells the unvarnished truth about what it’s like to liquidate your retirement, max out your credit cards and to be on the cusp of an industry revolution.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Stacy Flynn

“30% of all clothing in the world is made from cotton.”

“[It takes] 700 gallons of water to cultivate enough cotton to make a t-shirt.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Programming Note

One piece of consistent feedback that we have received from listeners of Social Entrepreneur is that, while listeners love these stories, they have a hard time keeping up with three episodes per week. As one listener told me, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” So, we’ve made the decision to move Social Entrepreneur to a weekly podcast with new episodes every Monday, starting this week.

Culture Shift Learning Academy

Later in June we will be launching a Beta version of Culture Shift Learning Academy, a comprehensive system to help you flesh out your social impact idea and start achieving it.

Enrollment isn’t open yet, but you can join the waiting list with other changemakers. Just go to http://tonyloyd.com/assessment and enter your email address. As a thank you, I’ll send you the Social Entrepreneur Startup Readiness Assessment. This useful tool is designed to help you to determine where you are on your startup journey and to successfully focus your development efforts.